During this summer vacation, I had the privilege of joining the Shanhai Team. The time spent with robots and teammates became my most cherished memory of this summer. The moment I stepped onto the field, I realized that this was not just a competition, but a journey filled with sweat, warmth, and transformation.
With only half a month left until the World Humanoid Robot Sports Competition, my seniors and I arrived early at the training venue. It was my first time seeing the T1 robot used in the competition. From my seniors’ introduction, I learned that the robot stands at a height of 1.2 meters and weighs over 60 pounds. It has a control board and a perception board, each running independent operating systems. We mainly operate on the perception board to run code and control the robot’s movements. I was very excited to see such an advanced robot for the first time, so I quickly helped my seniors transport the robot and fetch batteries. Watching my seniors configure the network for the robot, pull code, compile, perform visual calibration, and distance compensation, I diligently learned the process. I watched as their fingers flew over the keyboard, lines of code jumping on the screen, and I leaned in to observe, quietly asking questions whenever I encountered unfamiliar commands, eager to learn these preparations and help out later. While my seniors modified the code, I kept myself busy by carefully reading the T1 robot’s manual and development guide. Whenever I encountered obscure technical terms, I searched online for information, and for those I couldn’t understand, I marked them down to ask my seniors later. I then learned how to remotely control the robot, mastering the use of the joystick to operate the robot in various modes and get it moving. In the following days, whenever my seniors tested the modified code, I assisted in initializing the robot and positioning it correctly. Seeing that I could genuinely contribute filled me with a growing sense of accomplishment.
When I finally stood on the competition field, I truly understood the weight of the phrase “teamwork.” The competition assessed not only the quality of code writing but also whether team members could quickly respond to unexpected situations in a tense environment. One of the most common occurrences during the competition was the robot falling over: the T1 robot, weighing over 60 pounds, cannot be quickly lifted by just one person. This is when two people need to work in sync—one quickly grabs the remote control to put the robot in preparation mode to prevent it from moving, while the other rushes in to support the robot’s sides with both hands, carefully carrying it to the sidelines, and then a teammate switches it back to “managed mode” to re-enter the competition. These steps sound easy, but completing them quickly during the intense pace of a formal competition is quite challenging. Moreover, various unexpected situations can arise during the competition, such as a robot suddenly losing connection and standing still, or a robot getting damaged due to intense competition. How to quickly resolve these issues becomes the key to winning or losing the match. I believe our seamless cooperation was the secret to our success; we were the team that handled robot falls most efficiently, ensuring that most of the time all robots were on the field, minimizing the risk of missing a defense due to one robot being out.
This journey has taught me that growth is never a solitary endeavor. I am grateful to my seniors for their hands-on guidance and to my teammates for their unwavering cooperation. They helped me transform from a novice with only a rudimentary understanding of robots into a capable member on the competition field. The gains from this summer have far exceeded the scope of “competition experience”—it is a gift about perseverance, trust, and passion that will accompany me as I continue to move forward on my future path.